Marion Facilities Manager Shaun Cormier has those two football-size pieces that are missing from the Main Street facing upper facade on the Town Hall Annex building, but they are not going back up.
“We’re going to try and duplicate that…. Unfortunately, they’re too far gone. There’s only so far you can go with restoration,” said Cormier. But the shingles will stay. “We’re going to save this detail as long as we can.”
What can be seen on the Annex building and what cannot are two distinctly different things, and Superman’s x-ray vision would not reveal a pretty sight. Behind the vinyl siding on the Annex building is wood siding containing lead paint that will necessitate an abatement requiring a legally prescribed procedure for safe removal of the contaminant.
The granite steps are their own story.
The Sippican Historical Society and a private donor have been the main benefactors of the Town House project that has sought funding from public sources, including grant money.
Two $90,000 capital items recommended by the Marion Community Preservation Committee for the Annual Town Meeting Warrant are divided up between Annex-related projects.
The first proposed appropriation addresses the Main Street facing side of the Annex building, a deep restoration that will replace the existing glass doors with mahogany entry doors matching those on the adjacent Town House, along with new insulated windows and restoration of the facade above the doors. It will also include a full set of architectural bidding documents redesigning the steep granite steps and associated landscaping.
The first $90,000 item was originally set at $221,000 to encompass the reconstruction of the granite steps. However, citing several other needs around town, a scaled-down version of the project is more appropriate for this year.
The second $90,000 item on the CPC’s recommended list is intended to complete the exterior renovation around the rest of the partially octagonal Annex building, for which the town has already re-appropriated approximately $119,000.
The steps are not original to the 1890 structure. The entryway was originally at the ground level and on the side of the building facing the Town House. At 8 inches high, the granite is out of code but will be shaved down to be reused in a compliant version more welcoming to aged visitors. A complete tear-down and reconstruction of the steps will also remove the bulkheads on either side and, most importantly, completely reconstruct the support system.
“We all know it as this being the entrance, but none of us have ever seen it without it,” said Cormier, who further explained what cannot be seen behind the granite, a system of braces that are doing the job right now but are in need of reinvention for the long term.
“Public procurement with prevailing wage and commercial bidding tends to increase bid prices,” said Cormier, acknowledging that the steps project is actually worth $131,000, “if not more.” The reconstruction of the granite steps and associated landscaping will be a fundraising project for 2022.
The Marion Historical Commission has also played a key role in furthering the cause of the current projects and informing Cormier of the stages in the building’s history. Photos help tell the story, and perhaps the most tasteful historic snapshot is not the original one.
However people remember it, the 1890 Annex, which from some angles looks more like a family restaurant tightly tucked inside an uneven city block, will soon reflect more favorably on its 1876 neighbor.
By Mick Colageo